Yeah, I did read it. I assumed it was a joke.

1. Someone makes an outrageous claim.
2. The claim is debunked by looking at the facts.

If someone makes a statement without being willing to supply evidence, then the statement is questionable.

If the response to any attempt to debunk the claim is that those debunking it are questionable, then there is no point in arguing anything; if you decide on a conclusion, and refuse to consider facts or evidence, and indeed consider facts to be merely an inconvenience that gets in the way of your pre-determined conclusion, when what's the point in attempting to have a discussion?


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Edit: Also, feel free to ignore my post here.

He's just gone 7 tenths clear of the rest in final practice, and Perez is ahead of Hamilton, too. Red Bull are looking quite strong... but Mercedes also looked quite good in the earlier sessions, and as ever we won't know until qualifying.
Personally I'm just glad that the street races are done and we're back to proper racing tracks.

I must say, it's much more efficient for you to debunk your owns posts like this. It saves us all the hassle of presenting the facts and evidence. Maybe you can just add "FACT CHECK: THIS IS FALSE" to each of these all-bold P&S threads? And presumably this particular thread can be closed now, as there's nothing more to say on the subject?

It does look like France should win the group and Hungary finish last, so yes, the Portugal vs Germany game should go a long way towards determining who will finish second. I think Portugal might edge it. Of course most of the third-placed teams also qualify, so if this is a draw we could well see Portugal and Germany both finishing the group on 4 points, and both going through.

Or maybe not...

I'm in the UK. I've been following the data on a daily basis for well over a year now. If you want to have a look for yourself, this is as good a summary as any.

The UK is experiencing a surge in cases due to the rise of the 'delta' variant, which was first identified in India. This now accounts for 99% of new cases. For some reason (which I won't go into now for the purposes of brevity) the UK decided not to put India on the 'red' list of travel restrictions for quite some time, despite being well aware of the spread there of this more transmissible new strain. Red-listing India would have meant that people entering the UK from India would have had to self-isolate, which would almost certainly have reduced the spread.

The 'delta' variant...https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/57500637

The UK wasn't concerned enough to put India on the 'red' travel restriction list until 23 April. Which brings to mind this, yet again.

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Images below from my first link.
We let 20,000 people enter the country from India in the month leading up to 23 April, which was more than sufficient for the variant to take hold in the north-west of England (which has a high Indian population).



Cases are rising rapidly, but hospitalisations and deaths are not... BECAUSE OF THE VACCINE. (You'd think this wouldn't need explaining yet again, but here we are...)





For any anti-vaxxer zealots who remain unconvinced, you might want to also consider that vaccination in the UK has been offered in descending order of age, because older people are more vulnerable to severe effects. So the younger you are, the less likely you've been vaccinated. Here are the case rates by age group.



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I don't know if you're a creationist, or if you believe in evolution through mutation and natural selection... but that's how humans got here. Viruses — particularly RNA-viruses such as Covid — also mutate and are of course subject to natural selection: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_evolution

Harry Kane didn't look good at all. Not sure what's wrong with him, he's normally better than he has been in this tournament.
But yes, the way the media have it, it has to be one extreme or the other, England are either utterly useless or else supreme world-beaters... there's no in between. And of course, as always, in between is precisely where the truth is.

Yes, we can't really compare street circuits with normal race tracks; the conditions are just not the same. I think in France we are likely back to the normal order that we saw earlier in the season, with Hamilton and Verstappen vying for pole... and hopefully Perez and Bottas performing well in qualifying to add a strategic element to the race.

I agree with coinlocket$ - England have the better team, but the fact that these are two neighbouring countries with a long history makes things more interesting. Perhaps England will win easily, but I think it's more likely that it will be a closely fought match.

Given that I have found our previous discussions useful, and your replies insightful and from a perspective at times opposite to my own, I'd be interested to hear your take on the charts I posted: https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5344113.msg57246150#msg57246150
Particularly the second chart, which demonstrates a process towards equalisation of happiness within a nation as per capita GDP increases. What do you think might account for this?

Well, his heart stopped, and he stopped breathing. He was technically dead, but they managed to resuscitate him quickly. It was a lot more than a faint.
As for whether he'll play again, we don't know until the medical investigations are complete. Even then, there is the question of whether the relevant authorities would let him play, when there is obviously the chance of this happening again with a much worse outcome. A UK doctor has said that if Eriksen were still contracted in England, then they wouldn't let him play again. It's entirely understandable.

Let's just hope he recovers fully and this doesn't happen again.

This is a very important consideration. People often only look at transfer fees, and don't see that for big name players the wages are just as important a factor.
As for a player coming towards the end of his career, he will likely be looking for one last big contract, so I'm not sure how much he'd be willing to accept a reduction, unless of course they offer a longer term...

The correlation (first chart) is actually quite striking, particularly on a logarithmic scale.

There is also considerable evidence (second chart) that the standard deviation of happiness within a population drops as per capita GDP increases... i.e., as the average wealth within a country increases, the levels of inequality of happiness reduce. We might expect to see this in poorer nations, as people are lifted above the level of mere subsistence... but the trend is valid in developed nations, too. This for me is somewhat counterintuitive... given rising inequality within developed nations over recent decades, we might have expected the lines to run the other way (although the chart does stop at 2007). There are of course many other potential factors to consider; I have several ideas, but I don't want this post to turn into an essay, so I've leave it there .





https://ourworldindata.org/happiness-and-life-satisfaction

Extenuating circumstances, I think. Normally they'd have won it quite easily.
As for whether they will be back to normal for the next game, it's a difficult question. When a team-mate just collapses like that and has to be resuscitated, it's difficult to focus on winning a football match.

CO = corona; VI = virus; D = disease

COVID-19 = the novel coronavirus that arose in 2019

SARS-CoV-2 = severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (2 because it is genetically related to the SARS outbreak of '03)

... Words don't lie.

https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/technical-guidance/naming-the-coronavirus-disease-(covid-2019)-and-the-virus-that-causes-it

Yeah. Either that, or the magnet theory is absolute nonsense.
One or the other...

Please look at the data. I mean the vast quantities of data from numerous independent sources around the world. Not the "data" from some YouTube crackpot.

As a UK tennis fan, I'm really glad to see him back
And it's nice to see he's taken the first set vs Paire. But it will be extremely difficult for him to return to his old level, winning slams and sometimes beating the likes of Djokovic and Federer.
I'm sure he knows that, too, but the fact that he has put so much work in over the last few years just to be able to play professional games again shows just how much he loves tennis.
I wish him all the best.

I also think France will win. But one complicating factor is that it's always a brave decision to underestimate Germany, as historically they have always been so strong. And being the underdog means less pressure, which can act in your favour.
Maybe France will win easily, but there's also a good chance that it might not be as clear-cut as we think.

The main problem with democracy is that all you need to do to get a majority of the vote is appeal to the base prejudices of a sufficient number of people. Elections are increasingly won by soundbites rather than substantial and workable policies. And of course the elites who run the media have a huge influence.

A hideous beast that rose to prominence in the 1980s, and is often confused with a giant squid, Donald Trump — sorry, the Kraken — is actually an artificial construct with no legitimate basis in reality. It can be seen here enduring one of a series of hours-long make-up sessions as its creator attempts to make it look human. Or was that Trump again? You can see how these myths originate.



You can also watch it here abusing its position of power to engage in predatory behaviour towards a young woman: https://www.youtube.com/embed/eWo9N9nNJT8?start=1&end=14